May
14
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John Piper Avoids Political Realm
“Two key conservative evangelical leaders in Minnesota are not endorsing the marriage amendment or directing followers to vote for it, marking the first time during debate over the measure that major faith leaders have not encouraged members to take a stand on the issue.
Influential preacher and theologian the Rev. John Piper came out against gay marriage during a sermon Sunday but did not explicitly urge members of his Minneapolis church to vote for the amendment.”
According to the article, “He [Piper] wants to avoid the political realm as much as possible. The Christian Gospel is not left, it’s not right. It is what it is.”
The post goes on to declare that “When churches start getting really politically engaged, they often lose focus over what is their primary mission”
Really? Has the Church forgotten that the mission of the Church is to preach the whole Word of God? And folks, the whole counsel of God includes politics.
Staying out of politics is not bold Christianity, brethren. It is politically correct, ecumenical compromise.
5 Pt. Salt 
“The post goes on to declare that ‘When churches start getting really politically engaged, they often lose focus over what is their primary mission'”
Since everything political has to do with someone’s morality (or, more often than not, immorality), everything political is religious or spiritual in nature. Even if we set the dominion mandate (as found, for example, in 2 Cor 10:3-6) aside, it is inescapable that politics are part and parcel of the church’s primary mission. It’s integral to the kingdom message, which encompasses every aspect of life.
The core message of Christianity is telling sinners where to find salvation; it’s not legislating salvation and then expecting the world to conform to Christianity.
Who said anything about “legislating salvation”? Such an idea is absurd, of course; neither will the world ever ‘conform to Christianity’ because it is the world, opposed to all things Christian. The primary task of the Church is to preach the whole counsel of God – not discipleship, not church planting, not that these do not have a place in ministry – but the primary task is simply men, called of God, proclaiming the whole counsel of God.
Well, I think Piper IS preaching and saying what God establishes in the scripture. He has never being middle grounded or people pleasing, at least not what I’ve read and heard from him (which is quite a lot). I am not idolizing Piper here, he is human, he can make mistakes. But I don’t think it is such a big deal that he doesn’t want to mix up with politics (I don’t think that it’s that he wants to look good since he is preaching against homosexual marriage anyways). Lets remember that Piper HAS been very straight forward with politic authorities (his message for Obama on abortion).
“Staying out of politics is not bold Christianity, brethren. It is politically correct, ecumenical compromise.” I think this is a very strong thing to say. Yes, most preachers nowadays want to look good in front of everyone, but this is not necessarily the case. I am not going to give you the “don’t judge” lecture, that’s not my point (in fact the Bible states we must judge in a correct way).
We all should be engaged in politics. We are citizens, it is our responsability. God even uses men and women inside the government to spread His word and His kingdom! Christians should be involved! But what Piper says, it is true, we might lose our way in the journey. We need to focus on eternal things. Yes politics are important, but they are from this world. This world is going from bad to worst. There is no way back. Yes, we can (and should) raise our voice, to proclaim His word, His truth. But the bad from this world is not going to stop. This world will end. Maybe Piper is saying that if we focus too much on politics, we can lose focus. At least that’s what I understand.
Anyways. May God give wisdom to all of those whose voice can be heard. To all of us. So we can preach His truth where ever we go. With wisdom and love.